Looking for 2 old Unix programs
Terry Kennedy
1) A program called "festoon" which generated bogus memos, such as
"Memorandum for Wastebasket".
2) A program that I don't know the name of, which generated astro-
nomical data of the form "The sun rises at X AM. The Sun sets at
X PM. The Moon rises at X PM" and so forth. This program gener-
ated an output file called "astro" with the above text in it, and
was used to demo an early Bell Labs speech synthesis system.
Ideally, I'd like to get the C sources for these, but I could prob-
ably run the binaries under apout.
I'm asking here in a.f.c because the folks here seem to have a better
memory of old systems and software...
Terry Kennedy http://www.tmk.com
te...@tmk.com Jersey City, NJ USA
Peter Seebach
Terry Kennedy <te...@gate.tmk.com> wrote:
> 1) A program called "festoon" which generated bogus memos, such as
> "Memorandum for Wastebasket".
Now that you've described this, I'm looking for it too.
-s
--
Copyright 2000, All rights reserved. Peter Seebach / se...@plethora.net
C/Unix wizard, Pro-commerce radical, Spam fighter. Boycott Spamazon!
Consulting & Computers: http://www.plethora.net/
Get paid to surf! No spam. http://www.alladvantage.com/go.asp?refid=GZX636
gla...@glass2.lexington.ibm.com
> I'm looking for two old Unix programs (7th Edition or earlier):
>
> "Memorandum for Wastebasket".
>
> nomical data of the form "The sun rises at X AM. The Sun sets at
> X PM. The Moon rises at X PM" and so forth. This program gener-
> ated an output file called "astro" with the above text in it, and
> was used to demo an early Bell Labs speech synthesis system.
>
> Ideally, I'd like to get the C sources for these, but I could prob-
>ably run the binaries under apout.
>
> I'm asking here in a.f.c because the folks here seem to have a better
>memory of old systems and software...
>
> Terry Kennedy http://www.tmk.com
> te...@tmk.com Jersey City, NJ USA
I don't have the programs, but I've seen similar astronomical
programs, most of which are based on a book by Jean Meeus called
"Astronomical Formulae for Calculators". You might try finding that
if you'd like to recode them.
Dave
P.S. Standard Disclaimer: I work for them, but I don't speak for them.
Alexandre Pechtchanski
>In article <FuGJw...@spcuna.spc.edu>,
>Terry Kennedy <te...@gate.tmk.com> wrote:
>> 1) A program called "festoon" which generated bogus memos, such as
>> "Memorandum for Wastebasket".
>
>Now that you've described this, I'm looking for it too.
Ah! So _that_ is where code base for Microsoft Word came from ;-)
[ When replying, remove *'s from address ]
Alexandre Pechtchanski, Systems Manager, RUH, NY
Pete Fenelon
> 2) A program that I don't know the name of, which generated astro-
> nomical data of the form "The sun rises at X AM. The Sun sets at
> X PM. The Moon rises at X PM" and so forth. This program gener-
> ated an output file called "astro" with the above text in it, and
> was used to demo an early Bell Labs speech synthesis system.
I think this was "ephem".
pete
--
pe...@fenelon.com "We ask ourselves what will become of Evil Gazebo?" (HMHB)
Heinz W. Wiggeshoff
>
> I don't have the programs, but I've seen similar astronomical
> programs, most of which are based on a book by Jean Meeus called
> "Astronomical Formulae for Calculators". You might try finding that
> if you'd like to recode them.
See also:
Practical Astronomy With Your Calculator 2nd ed.
by Peter Duffet-Smith
Pub. Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge
c/r C.U.Press 1979, 1981
Lib. of Congress number: 81-6191
ISBN 0 521 24059 X hardcover
0 521 28411 2 paperback
I put some of the routines in Lotus 1-2-3, and APL.
Charles Richmond
>
> I'm looking for two old Unix programs (7th Edition or earlier):
>
> "Memorandum for Wastebasket".
>
> nomical data of the form "The sun rises at X AM. The Sun sets at
> X PM. The Moon rises at X PM" and so forth. This program gener-
> ated an output file called "astro" with the above text in it, and
> was used to demo an early Bell Labs speech synthesis system.
>
ftp.cdrom.com/.2/.freebsd/branches/-current/ports/astro/ephem
--
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Charles and Francis Richmond <rich...@plano.net> |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
Warren Toomey
Terry Kennedy <te...@gate.tmk.com> writes:
> I'm looking for two old Unix programs (7th Edition or earlier):
>
> 1) A program called "festoon" which generated bogus memos, such as
> "Memorandum for Wastebasket".
All I can find is the binary from 2.9BSD and the associated man page.
No sources yet. I'll keep looking.
Cheers,
Warren
Warren Toomey
Terry Kennedy <te...@gate.tmk.com> writes:
> I'm looking for two old Unix programs (7th Edition or earlier):
>
> 1) A program called "festoon" which generated bogus memos, such as
> "Memorandum for Wastebasket".
I've found a bug report for festoon, dated April 1986 :-) It appears that
the program was posted in net.sources. I've searched thru archives
of comp.sources.*, but these are too recent.
Your best bet at finding this source is to find someone who has an archive
of net.sources. Henry Spencer would possibly have such an archive.
Attached below is the bug report, for what it's worth.
Warren
Path: plus5!wuphys!wucs!we53!ltuxa!cuae2!ihnp4!mhuxn!mhuxr!ulysses!burl!clyde!watmath!utzoo!utcsri!greg
From: gr...@utcsri.UUCP (Gregory Smith)
Newsgroups: net.sources.bugs
Subject: Re: festoon-like source
Message-ID: <24...@utcsri.UUCP>
Date: 3 Apr 86 01:31:50 GMT
References: <54...@sri-spam.ARPA>
Reply-To: gr...@utcsri.UUCP (Gregory Smith)
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Lines: 77
Summary: bug fixes!
Posted: Wed Apr 2 19:31:50 1986
I tried the 'silly report generator' ( from `argv' ) and liked it, but I
found two bugs: (1) 'a' and 'an' are not chosen properly. (2) 'the'
is never used except as part of a canned phrase. The first bug was,
in fact, documented in the source.
Here is a fix for both. Between the next two dotted lines is a pair
of functions to replace the old 'nounphr' function in the source file.
They are 'nounphr' and 'prepend'. Just delete the old nounphr and
edit them instead.
I also found a number of spelling errors - see text after
next two dotted lines.
--------------------------------------------------------------
nounphr (string)
register char *string;
{
register char *article;
article = string+strlen(string);
if (!(random() % 4))
adjphr (string), strcat (string, " ");
strcat (string, PICK1(nouns));
prepend(article, (random()&1)? "the ": isvowel(article[0])?"an ":"a ");
if (!(random() % 6)) {
strcat (string, " ");
strcat (string, PICK1(prep));
strcat (string, " ");
nounphr (string);
}
}
prepend( s1,s2 ) register char *s1; char *s2;
{ register char *rp,*wp;
rp = s1+strlen(s1); /* point to null */
wp = rp+strlen(s2);
do{
*wp-- = *rp--;
}while( rp>=s1);
rp = s2;
while(*rp) *s1++ = *rp++;
}
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Apply the following to correct spelling in words.h
I.E.: ed words.h <the_file_containing_stuff_below
I have left in a few examples of 'managementese' e.g. 'prioritized'.
I have also changed some words which are completely meaningless
( actification? ) to suitable real words.
If I missed any, it's because 'spell' missed them.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
/actification/s//symmetry/
/aggrevated/s//aggravated/
/conscientously/s//conscientiously/
/consistancy/s//consistency/
/contemporaneuosly/s//contemporaneously/
/contributatively/s//contributively/
/desireable/s//desirable/
/desireably/s//desirably/
/discresionary/s//discretionary/
/effecaciously/s//efficaciously/
/effectation/s//affectation/
/elimintaion/s//elimination/
/epistomologically/s//epistemologically/
/heirarchy/s//hierarchy/
/imperceptably/s//imperceptibly/
/inconsistancy/s//inconsistency/
/indicitive/s//indicative/
/recurrance/s//recurrence/
w
q
-----------------------------------------------------
--
"If you aren't making any mistakes, you aren't doing anything".
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Greg Smith University of Toronto UUCP: ..utzoo!utcsri!greg
Dennis Ritchie
Terry Kennedy wrote:
>
> I'm looking for two old Unix programs (7th Edition or earlier):
>
> 1) A program called "festoon" which generated bogus memos, such as
> "Memorandum for Wastebasket".
>
> 2) A program that I don't know the name of, which generated astro-
> nomical data of the form "The sun rises at X AM. The Sun sets at
> X PM. The Moon rises at X PM" and so forth. This program gener-
> ated an output file called "astro" with the above text in it, and
> was used to demo an early Bell Labs speech synthesis system.
The direct descendant of the original 'astro' is in the upcoming Plan 9
distribution.
E.g.
p9C; astro -s
May thirteen ...
Twilight ends at one fifty seven AM ...
The moon sets at seven forty AM ...
Twilight starts at seven forty nine AM ...
The sun rises at nine forty one AM ...
The sun sets at twelve O seven AM ...
I will communicate with Kennedy about festoon. If he or others
want more instant gratification for ephemerides programs, the pointers
temporally later in this thread may be useful.
Dennis
Matthew W. Miller
>In article <FuGJw...@spcuna.spc.edu>,
> Terry Kennedy <te...@gate.tmk.com> writes:
>> "Memorandum for Wastebasket".
>No sources yet. I'll keep looking.
Here's the manpage from Bell Labs's Plan 9 distribution:
<http://plan9.bell-labs.com/magic/man2html/1/games>
If anyone can comprehend the maze of directories well enough to try to
find whether the program itself is available anywhere on the site, please
do.
--
Matthew W. Miller -- ma...@infinet.com
Ben Clifford
gla...@glass2.lexington.ibm.com <gla...@glass2.lexington.ibm.com> wrote:
>> 2) A program that I don't know the name of, which generated astro-
>> nomical data of the form "The sun rises at X AM. The Sun sets at
>I don't have the programs, but I've seen similar astronomical
>programs, most of which are based on a book by Jean Meeus called
>"Astronomical Formulae for Calculators". You might try finding that
Also, Calendrical Calculations by Dershowitzs & Reingold has a number of
similar algorithms/formulae.
I looked at their website about a year ago and I vaguely recall them having
implementations of their code posted there.
http://emr.cs.uiuc.edu/home/reingold/calendar-book/index.html
Much of their code is based on stuff incorporated into
"version 19 of GNU EMACS".
gla...@glass2.lexington.ibm.com
> (gla...@glass2.lexington.ibm.com) writes:
>>
>> I don't have the programs, but I've seen similar astronomical
>> programs, most of which are based on a book by Jean Meeus called
>> "Astronomical Formulae for Calculators". You might try finding that
>
> See also:
>
> Practical Astronomy With Your Calculator 2nd ed.
> by Peter Duffet-Smith
> Pub. Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge
>
> c/r C.U.Press 1979, 1981
>
> Lib. of Congress number: 81-6191
> ISBN 0 521 24059 X hardcover
> 0 521 28411 2 paperback
>
> I put some of the routines in Lotus 1-2-3, and APL.
Peter Duffett-Smith also wrote another book:
Astronomy with Your Personal Computer
1985, Cambridge University Press, 256 pages,
ISBN 0-521-26620-3 hard cover,
ISBN 0-521-31976-5 paperback
In this book, he gives programs, in Basic, for calculating many
astronomical functions.
I haven't really had a chance to read through it (I picked it up at a
library book-sale last weekend for US$.25 .), but, from just a casual
glance, the Basic looks like it should run on most contemporary systems.
Or, I may make an attempt at recoding the routines in Rexx.
Hmm, there's an order form in the back to order the programs on diskette.
I wonder if it's still valid? Oh, well, they're offered on 5.25 inch
diskettes, and I don't know if I have any system with a drive that new
in operation at the moment (after all, this is a.f.c). :*)
Heinz W. Wiggeshoff
>
> Peter Duffett-Smith also wrote another book:
>
> Astronomy with Your Personal Computer
> 1985, Cambridge University Press, 256 pages,
> ISBN 0-521-26620-3 hard cover,
> ISBN 0-521-31976-5 paperback
>
Thanks for this ref; I'll try the Ottawa Public Library today.
> In this book, he gives programs, in Basic, for calculating many
> astronomical functions.
I'll bet there are some hairy approx.s to trig functions!
>
> I haven't really had a chance to read through it (I picked it up at a
> library book-sale last weekend for US$.25 .), but, from just a casual
> glance, the Basic looks like it should run on most contemporary systems.
> Or, I may make an attempt at recoding the routines in Rexx.
Rexx's math might be a tad on the slow side. I run the MS DOS and OS/2
flavours. Haven't been at a VM/CMS shop for 7 years as of month-end.
>
> Hmm, there's an order form in the back to order the programs on diskette.
> I wonder if it's still valid? Oh, well, they're offered on 5.25 inch
> diskettes, and I don't know if I have any system with a drive that new
> in operation at the moment (after all, this is a.f.c). :*)
At this moment, I have 2 active, and two more in reserve. If I find
the disks, I'll copy them.
S.C.Sprong
>In article <FuGJw...@spcuna.spc.edu>,
> Terry Kennedy <te...@gate.tmk.com> writes:
>> "Memorandum for Wastebasket".
I'm very fond of textgenerators as well and a bogus memo generator is a
type I don't have yet. Last week I dug through various ftp servers but
I couldn't find 'festoon'.
>Your best bet at finding this source is to find someone who has an
>archive of net.sources. Henry Spencer would possibly have such an
>archive.
There are two parts of net.sources publicly available: a few postings
from the beginning in a presentation about the early days of Usenet,
and the not uncommon but very small 'least awful of net.sources'
(search for 'uunet' mirrors).
In desperation I mailed The Man. Henry Spencer replied promptly with:
}A few years back, Dave Wiseman undertook to get it onto modern media;
}last I heard, he'd read all my rotting old 9-track magtapes, but hadn't
}yet sorted out the details of making the stuff available conveniently.
}Anyway, check with him -- I'm all in favor, but no longer have custody
}of the data. :-)
(I omitted Wiseman's email address to thwart harvesters. I don't know
if it is good manners nowadays to dole it out on request.)
I'd really like to have a copy of net.sources and I will contact Wiseman.
Knowing from sad experience that many of my long-winded projects peter
out, I decided to report the current state.
"Your case is under investigation",
scsprong
Terry Kennedy
> I'm very fond of textgenerators as well and a bogus memo generator is a
> type I don't have yet. Last week I dug through various ftp servers but
> I couldn't find 'festoon'.
A prior followup in this thread pointed to an AltaVista search for
"festoon.c". Hit #3 is "http://cenpc175.ce.uiuc.edu/scott/src/festoon".
Note that this isn't the Bell Labs festoon - the comments in the C
source say that only the vocabulary was extracted from a binary of the
Bell festoon program.
A current version of festoon is apparently distributed with Plan 9:
http://plan9.bell-labs.com/magic/man2html/1/games
In response to my request, I've received copies of the festoon and astro
sources and I've gotten them to compile on my system (BSD/OS 4.1). Since I'm
not sure if they can be redistributed, I'm not offering them. If the person
who sent them to me (who may prefer to remain anonymous here) says it's Ok
to redistribute them, I'll make them available.
Thanks to everyone for the excellent pointers to similar programs!